Continental AG will be the premium sponsor and top partner of the DFB Cup in the 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 seasons

05/18/2010

Passenger and light truck tire manufacturer intensifies its regional soccer sponsorship alongside the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil

The goal is to strengthen the premium brand, Continental

Business partners will be intensively involved in activating this new sponsorship package

Hanover/Frankfurt am Main/Zug, 18 May 2010. For the first time, Continental AG is adding to its global soccer sponsorship of the 2010 FIFA World CupTM in South Africa and 2014 in Brazil with premium sponsorship of the DFB Cup, the German domestic cup competition.

The package purchased from the Swiss rights marketing company Infront is for a period of two years. It guarantees Continental not only TV presence through brand advertising and other publicity vehicles in the stadiums where all 63 cup games will be held nationwide throughout Germany, but also a significant contingent of tickets that can be used for publicity purposes.

Furthermore, Continental has signed an additional contract with the German Soccer Association (DFB) under which the company has purchased the rights to use the DFB brand for publicity purposes. Other top partners of the DFB Cup are Deutsche Post, Bitburger and Jack Wolfskin.

"With this sponsorship, we are building a bridge in the German-speaking countries between the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the qualification matches for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, which are going to be getting underway in 2012. In doing so, we wish to put our commitment to pro soccer on a broader base, expand it further regionally too as the central communication platform, and take a further step towards clearly positioning the premium brand Continental with a focus on safety and braking performance," explains Timo Röbbel, who is responsible for sports sponsorship at Continental in the German-speaking countries.

Timo Röbbel

"It is particularly important for us to involve our business customers in this activation process as intensively as possible. The nationwide series of matches in the DFB Cup will provide us with a very wide range of new opportunities for targeting customer loyalty and improving our local presence," continues Röbbel.

Denni Strich, the Head of Marketing at the DFB, commented: "We are delighted to welcome Continental on board as a leading company that is active in the automotive sector and based in Germany, but also very successful internationally. With its extensive network of dealers throughout Germany and the high level interest it has shown in promoting a strategic commitment in a spirit of friendship, Continental will certainly further enhance the premium character of the DFB Cup even more."

Continental has been committed to international pro soccer since 1995, and the company also announced earlier this year that it would be sponsoring major league soccer in the USA for the first time. This means the Hanover-based components supplier is pursuing a consistent and single-minded global strategy of using soccer as a communications platform.

At www.ContiSoccerWorld.de, Continental is providing extensive information about all activities relating to soccer, alongside numerous exclusive insights, team and star portraits for the sporting event of the year: the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.